Across the Fence

It took all of ten minutes to reach the designated area. The Liftmasters had long since started on their heading back to the airstrip by the time they arrived. They’d be landing back at the airbase soon, but it would be at least another half hour until Carwyn and Franziska arrived. Allison didn’t like it, but Charlotte was the noncom for now, and she could and would offload any blame onto her. Even while stating that Allison did, in fact, try to correct the Sergeant’s actions by advising her of the original mission parameters. It was funny. She was worried about the exact same thing that she hadn’t been during the last mission, and she was still getting the feeling that she would end up in hot water. Life was funny like that.

Allison and Charlotte scanned the area. Despite the coordinates being correct, the damaged ARES was nowhere to be seen. It wasn’t as if they had missed it. A twenty foot tall war machine wasn’t exactly hard to find, yet there was nothing here. Charlotte moved one way while Allison moved the other. They spread out and began to search their surroundings. It took all of a minute before Allison called Charlotte over. When the SFC came by, Allison pointed out what she had found. Drag marks in the ground leading west. They followed the tracks with their sensors and then looked at each other. Their lights went to a yellowish green hue to signify doubt and caution.

“Well, get going Corporal. Take point.”

Allison wanted to make a comment, but elected to say nothing to her and moved out instead. Charlotte came up right behind her, falling into a column formation. The town of Coburg was dead ahead. Residential homes came up first. Allison skirted away from them as much as possible, lest they still housed infected. The drag marks led further into the limits of the town. They took the main roads to the overpass that went above the train tracks. The road itself was marred with scars from something very heavy being dragged down it, and Allison was reminded about how tanks were equipped with rubber treads to swap out when driving on city roads to avoid damaging them. As she made her way there, Charlotte came up behind her.

“What have you got?”she asked.

“The trail leads into the soccer stadium.”

“They call it ‘football’ over here.”

“Respectfully, Sergeant, I couldn’t give a shit.”

“Feisty,” Charlotte snickered.

“I don’t like this. Cover me.”

“Right, I got you.”

Charlotte leveled her chaingun at the stadium entrance as Allison approached it. She held her shot cannon at the front gate until she passed around it. The ARES was there, laying in a heap of twisted metal in the middle of the playing field. She held fast. None of this added up. Why drag the ARES here of all places? And who could’ve done that? Scratch that, who even wanted to in the first place? All sorts of alarm bells were ringing in her head.

“Sarn’t, we need to get back to the DZ.”

“What’s the problem, Corporal?”

“This is all wrong. We need to-”

Allison had turned her head to look back towards where Charlotte was posted up, only to see something large materialize from behind her.

“GET DOWN!”

She leveled the shot cannon at Charlotte, who ducked and turned around. The shot rang out, and something pinged her APS to activate. It happened so fast. She watched the hulking machine reach out and shove Charlotte into the street with one hand. The other held some kind of bullpup weapon system that was suddenly being fired towards her. Allison ducked sideways and fired off more shots at it. The canister rounds were ineffective against enemy armor, but they could still mess up optical sensors and the like. Still, she was being tracked as she moved; rounds ripped up her leg and arm. There was too much incoming fire for the APS to engage all at once.

“Charlotte, get up! Get up and run!”

“Shit! What the fuck is that?!”

“I don’t know, but we need to move! Now!”

Charlotte stood up as Allison activated the smoke launchers on her front. In the blink of an eye, their entire world was nothing but a white cloud between them. The Visual and Infrared Screening Smoke (VIRSS) was designed not only to obscure optical sensors but to also defeat infrared imaging as well. Unlike most conventional smoke screens that could still be seen through with thermal vision, the VIRSS smoke was purposely made to create a barrier that would keep them completely hidden. However, there was nothing stopping it from just walking right through the smoke to regain its visual. With that in mind, Allison helped Charlotte move down the street and then jumped off the overpass and onto the train tracks.

“What the fuck was that?” Charlotte asked.

“I don’t know, I’ve never seen something like that before.” Allison replied.

“You think it’s some kind of new MARS unit?”

“Could be. It’s bulky enough to be Soviet, but I didn’t notice any insignias on it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Soviet MARS units have numbers and emblems and camouflage or just green paint on them. That had…what was it…it looked almost like dazzle camouflage from the Royal Navy.”

“Great. Then I guess we got more competition.”

“We need to regroup with the others. Move back to the DZ.”

“You really think that’s going to work?”

“Sergeant, we’re out of our league and we’re off mission. With all due respect, get your fucking ass back to the DZ and get a hold of Carwyn and Franziska.”

“While you do what? Try and take it on with that peashooter.”

“We don’t have time to argue!”

Allison stepped out just in time to see the new enemy appear on the overpass.

“Oh shit!” She shouted as she blasted it with the shot cannon another time. “Go! Go!”

“You don’t have the firepower!”

“I got its attention! Go now!”

“Hang on!”

“No ‘hang on’! If you get me killed Charlotte, I swear to God I will fucking kill you!”

Allison moved back and lit off a few more shots, all of which did nothing but scratch its paintjob. It was, in a sense, another job the canister rounds were made for. In the event of an ARES being swarmed by infected trying to disable it or outright annoy them, the shot cannon’s canister rounds were to be used to blast them off allies. It was called a backscratch. Now, it was proving next to useless as she fired off at the hulking enemy. But that didn’t scare her. She needed the rounds expended so she could reload the APFSDS magazine once they and the HEP rounds were spent. As she stepped off, she looked to see Charlotte’s autocannon had malfunctioned due to incurred damage from the previous engagement. She had now discarded it and was moving back towards the DZ like Allison advised her to. It was going to be hell back at base for her with everything that she said, but she had more important things in front of her.

The enemy fired at her. She got a good look at it. Big, cumbersome, but it almost looked like that of an ARES unit. It was slower, but it had arms and legs now. If it was a MARS unit, it was a far cry from the old “walking tanks” that she had fought previously. Perhaps the Soviets, in their isolation, had made improvements after their encounters with the ARES units. But then, why was it alone and not with a designated support unit? It also had no insignia on the camouflaged chassis. Nothing about this made sense. Then it spoke.

“Cower before me, you dog. I’ll send you to oblivion!”

Allison’s running lights blinked off for a millisecond. What in the world? Nothing about today was adding up to anything. She turned on her outboard speakers.

“How about this: You leave, and I won’t shoot you in the back. That sounds fair to me.” She retorted as she moved through the streets, ducking between buildings as she reloaded the shot cannon.

“Nonbelievers will be punished! In the name of the Ashen Dawn!”

One of the buildings in front of her exploded. Debris scattered around her.

“Shit!” A reflex that earned her another, more well-placed shot in her shoulder.

Allison took off down the main street and headed north. She stopped around a building and checked her shot cannon, making sure it was still good to go. She looked back to see if Mr. “Ashen Dawn” was still following her. For sticking her head out, she was rewarded with a blast that sheared half her head off. She swore. Her optics went down, but she had gotten a good sight picture before that happened. She stepped out and fired wildly down the street. It was all she could do to keep him at bay. The result ended with her suddenly going down into the street as her leg went out from under her. The only thing her HUD was displaying was her overall status. She watched as her left leg went black, indicating it had been severed from the rest of the unit. Then there was a loud boom and her hands went next. She shut off the outboard speakers. There was only one thing left to do. Nothing about this was something she was going to like. She had lost. Now, it was either lay down and die or make one last chance.

Something large landed on her torso.

“Don’t worry, I’ll send your comrades your way shortly.” The enemy said to her.

Allison activated the last of her smoke dischargers and then activated the ejection protocol. It was called “the rude awakening” among demi-machina. A sudden jolt into the real world, followed by the casket being jettisoned from the ARES unit and launched as fast as it possibly could be to gain distance from the scene of defeat. For her trouble her casket was sent bouncing off the street, crashing through one building and landing smack dab into another. Having been bounced around inside, Allison held tight as vertigo took hold. Dizziness set in. Her head spun. A small syringe fell into her palm. To combat the rude awakening and subsequent post-link malaise, AEGIS issued the demi-machina a special stimulant cocktail designed to get them back up and able to move non-stop for a few hours. Allison thumbed around it until she got the tip off and then brought it up to her neck and stabbed it into the exposed skin.

Her eyes shot open. Her pupils constricted. For a split-second, time moved a bit slower. Her body tingled. She felt alive. Sharp. Focused. She needed to be, for the doors to the casket had just opened. She pulled herself out. Her mind was going a mile a minute. She honed in. Her SERE training kicked in. First thing to do: acquire the “go bag” from the casket. She hopped out and moved to the tip of the casket. The compartment there held what she needed. She opened it up and pulled out the small rucksack. It had everything she needed for long-term survival. The next thing she pulled out was the CMU-33 Survival Vest that was equipped and outfitted personally by her for such an event. It had ammunition and a first aid kit as well as other immediate necessities. Everything had been tightly packed to avoid damage from the violent ejection of the casket.

Allison threw the vest on without hesitation and zipped it up. She grabbed a pair of boots and quickly put them on. As good as the neural integration suits were, they weren’t made for extended field use. As such, a good pair of combat boots went a lot farther in protecting her feet, which she needed in order to stay agile and mobile. She also slipped on some hard-knuckle assault gloves she had stashed in the compartment. Much like the boots, the gloves were to protect her hands in the same way. The last two things that came out of the compartment were a customized Personal Defense Weapon (PDW), and a belt equipped with other gear that included a pistol. She put the belt on first, threw the rucksack onto her back, and then slung the PDW over her front. It had taken her all of two minutes, and they were the longest two minutes of her life.

She stopped. Listened. There wasn’t any sound for a while. But that wasn’t going to last much longer. It wouldn’t be long until the other guy figured out what happened. She slammed a magazine into the PDW and racked the charging handle back, observing to ensure that there was a round chambered. She did the same with her sidearm before sliding it back into its holster. There wasn’t much else to do now but get going. And just as that thought crossed her mind, a shadow was cast over the building she had found herself in.